Venus – New York. Venus is one of my favorite characters in the “grey” movement. She doesn’t confine herself within any labeled sexuality, but she is loud and proud of everything that she is. Venus is a well known DJ and party promoter, and she’s made a name for herself within the hip hop world, which she is helping evolve into a more accepting place.

iO Tillett Wright remembers the moment she decided to start living as a boy — age 6 when the kids at school barked at her that girls weren’t allowed to play basketball. As a teenager and adult, Tillett Wright went on to fall in love with a woman, and then to fall in love with a man.

As she reveals in today’s bold talk, while marriage was far from her mind in 2008 when California’s Proposition 8 sparked a national debate over gay marriage, the conversation still struck her like a punch.

“I was shocked by the fact that America, a country with such a tarnished civil rights record, could be repeating its mistakes so blatantly,” says Tillett Wright. “This powerful awareness rolled over me that I was a minority. In my own home country based on one facet of my character, I was legally and indisputably a second-class citizen … I was plagued by the question: how could anyone vote to strip the rights of the vast variety of the people that I knew? … Had these people consciously met a victim of their discrimination? Did they know who they were voting against?”

Tillett Wright had an idea: could she photographically introduce people against the idea of gay marriage to the vast number of people in the United State who consider themselves somewhere along the LBGTQ spectrum? She embarked on a series of photographs called Self-Evident Truths. The first two weeks of shooting in New York City were funded by the Human Rights Campaign, and the first 300 portraits spawned a video that quickly went viral. The project only exploded from there.

Now, Tillett Wright has set out to shoot 10,000 portraits for Self Evident Truths. So far, with the help of everyday donors, she has photographed about 2,000 people.

To hear more about Tillett Wright’s fascinating childhood, and about her hopes and dream for Self Evident Truth, watch her powerful talk. And in this gallery, Tillett Wright shares some of her favorite images from Self Evident Truths — along with the back story.

Jodi – Wichita Falls, Texas. Jodi’s family disowned her when they found out she was gay. She struck me as such a normal, average American girl — she works as an Abercrombie model at the mall, and was in her third year of college — but when a friend outed her, her religious parents kicked her out of the house, took her photos of the wall, quit paying her tuition, and started telling people her brother was an only child. Jodi suffers from arthritis, but her parents had her removed from their insurance despite that. It was such a powerful revelation for me, to understand the power that religion has within people — that it could drive them to legally divorce their own child.

Brian – New Orleans, Louisiana. When Brian showed up to the shoot, it was this big discussion about which one of the assistants was going to have to go and see if he actually knew what he was being photographed for, because he looked like such a straight manly man. But on his release form he put down “100% GAY”, and we all had to eat our stereotypes. Brian fell in love in high school, and lived with his partner for 20 years in Texas, until they broke up, about a year before this photo was taken. He had taken everything he owned and moved to New Orleans to start a new life, and was working at Mardi Gras zone. When he talked about his former lover his eyes would well up, and he referred to him as his “true love”. Brian taught me so much about how stereotypes of gay men as effeminate are a bunch of naive hogwash.

Alyss – Little Rock, Arkansas. Alyss, who identifies herself as pansexual, is the descendant of a long line of Pentecostal ministers, from a tiny little town in Arkansas. When she put on her MySpace that she thought she was bisexual, her mother grabbed her by the forehead and started praying over her in tongues. Alyss was told that she was no longer her parents’ daughter, and wasn’t welcome in their house anymore, and eventually, because she couldn’t stand being away from her family, she went back into the closet. Alyss was one of the most vibrant characters we met on our Southern tour.

Reverend Jill – Knoxville, Tennessee. Reverend Jill came to the Knoxville shoot with her long-time partner. They pulled me aside and told me how important it was that people know you can have a strong relationship with God, and still be gay. I thought that took tremendous courage, not only to be openly gay in a state like Tennessee, but to take on the religious battle as well. I had a lot of respect for them.

Chip – Atlanta, Georgia. Chip is a scientist and a skater. Again, when he started filling out his form, I almost wanted to double check that he knew what he was there for. It turns out he had gotten in touch with us weeks before, hoping we’d come and shoot in Atlanta. Chip was the only skateboarder who had ever come to be photographed, which kicked off a really interesting discussion about homophobia within the macho world of skateboarding, and how we could all help to reduce it.

Shannon & Willow – Denver, Colorado. Shannon came to the shoot with what I believe was her partner, and their two children, one of whom was in the arms of her biological father. The three adults had figured out a way to maintain a really healthy relationship with each other, and the kids were ecstatic, beautiful children. People come all the time asking to be photographed with the things that they are most proud of in their lives, so it makes me extremely happy when people bring their beautiful children and show that other than straight parents can do a damn good job too.

Carrie – Athens, Georgia. Carrie waited in a long line of people to be photographed in Athens, with long brown hair and glasses. We took a few photos and then she stopped me and asked if she should take her wig off. As soon as I saw her head, and what she was inclined to hide, I told her I thought she looked so powerful and beautiful without her wig. Instantly she straightened, planted her feet and came into her own skin. It was such a testament to the act of standing proud of who you are, be it about sexuality, or otherwise, and I’m really happy to have been able to see that in her.

Jamison – Dallas, Texas. Jamison truly just smacked me in the face with my own stereotypes about people. Before meeting him, and many like him, I had some preconceived, narrow view of what gay people looked like, (especially men) — even if it was a broad view by most standards. Jamison, a big, statuesque trucker from Texas taught me that I don’t know s*** from Christmas — other than straight people come in every shape and size possible. Jamison was a marker of growth for me.

Lauren – Knoxville, Tennessee. Lauren was so excited to participate in Self Evident Truths. A basketball player at the University of Tennessee, she sat on a curb for several hours during our first shooting day, and brought several of her teammates to be shot as well on the second. I gave a lecture at the school on the last day, and Lauren was there with an entire row of friends. After we left, we got an email from her saying that she had spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to contribute to society, and maybe it had to do with a public persona. Via the project she realized her contribution could have to do with her pride in her true self. She was so proud of coming into her own. Sadly, a few weeks later, we got an email from someone in the UT athletics department, telling us to take down all the images of their players.

TED Fellow Jon Lowenstein makes us look at the painful social issues that we may otherwise ignore through his bold photography. His project, “Shadow Lives, USA,” documents the journey of Mexicans and Central Americans migrating to the United States, recording their struggle as they reached American soil. The image above shows Gabriela Cruz — who grew up in […]

When Giles Duley left behind life as a music and fashion photographer and began criss-crossing the globe, photographing forgotten people — those with mental illness, living on the streets, residing in refugee camps and surviving in the crossfire of war — he felt a certain level of separation from his subjects. But then something happened […]